Bridging the gap: fermions in nuclear and atomic
physics

Alex GezerlisUniv. of Washington

I will discuss two general areas: a) the physics of
heavy nuclei and the connection with our understanding of weak coupling in quantum
many-body theory, and b) the physics of ultracold atomic gases. More specifically, I will
address two issues: i) the density dependence of Skyrme/Gogny Functionals used to
describe large nuclei, and ii) the energy of infinite matter at the strongly
interacting (and experimentally accessible) regime known as "unitarity". A connecting
thread between the two problems (apart from the fermionic nature of the particles) is
the methoodology: in both cases we have used Quantum Monte Carlo to either constrain or
compare with Density Functional Theory calculations.